Southbury — East Lyme, quite simply, was getting no-hit Saturday by Waterford's Dylan Bosco.

The rival teams, which were in the exact position last year in the Babe Ruth 13-year-old state tournament, with Waterford topping East Lyme in the semifinals, were at it again Saturday in the 14-year-old state tournament and the results were shaping up to be similar.

Only East Lyme, which takes its cues from manager Chris Holloway — Merrill Lynch first vice president of investments by day, laid-back baseball coach by night — wasn't finished, coming back for a 6-4 victory, propelling itself into Sunday's championship game.

“We had no pressure on us and we still don't,” Holloway said. “We're one of two Babe Ruth teams left playing in the state. There was no pressure. It's an easygoing team. They handle stress very well.”

East Lyme, which reached the state tournament as an at-large selection, having lost the district title to Waterford, came into the semifinals as the top-seeded team in the National Division, while Waterford was the No. 2 seed in the American Division.

East Lyme will play unbeaten Stamford, No. 1 in the American Division, in Sunday's final at 1 p.m.

Trailing 2-0 going into the sixth inning without the benefit of a hit, East Lyme rallied for six runs in the inning, beginning with a leadoff single by Jacob Diaz.

Diaz was the starting pitcher for East Lyme but left after 3.1 innings after giving up back-to-back doubles by Waterford's Liam Spellman and Drew Rocchetti that made it 2-0.

Diaz moved to third base when reliever Eddie Kaftan entered the game, but remained fired up, hitting his mitt with each out, shouting encouragement to Kaftan, throwing out a baserunner in the sixth.

East Lyme's six runs came on six hits and two errors. The team sent 12 men to the plate and left the bases loaded.

“It's really great 'cause we were here last year and we lost,” Diaz said. “I was thinking, 'Just get a base hit.' (Bosco) is definitely one of the hardest pitchers we've seen. But our coach tells us, 'No pressure. The pressure's on them.'

“I was surprised (we scored so many), but I was happy.”

After Diaz lined a single to left, Kaftan walked and Matt Malcom followed with an infield single to short to load the bases. Tom Mason dropped a bloop single in front of the Waterford left fielder to make it 2-1 and Jake Schelkly added a two-run single to give East Lyme a 3-2 lead.

That's when Waterford coach Dan Santos saw his kids become discouraged, he said. Waterford made two errors, threw to the wrong base once and watched as East Lyme's Sean Demers dropped a perfect bunt single down the third base line to keep the rally going.

Reliver Bobby Silva finally got out of the inning on a close throw to first by Rocchetti at third base, avoiding further damage.

Waterford scored two runs in bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with nobody out on a walk and consecutive singles by Noah Speller and Nick Porazzi. Bosco and Spellman each drove in a run on ground ball outs.

“After they took the lead 3-2, they were able to go up three more runs. We kind of quit on ourselves,” Santos said. “If we could have kept it 3-2 and then scored, maybe we win 4-3. But (East Lyme) put some good swings on the ball.”

Waterford, which had several of the same players from last year's team which went to the 13-year-old Babe Ruth World Series, scored single runs in the third and the fourth.

In the third, Max Adams doubled and scored on an error. The following inning featured the doubles by Spellman and Rocchetti. On Spellman's double, however, the East Lyme defense made a perfect throw to nail Bosco at the plate, erasing a potential third run.

Last year East Lyme won the District 6 title and Waterford took the state championship. This year, Waterford won the district, while East Lyme was afforded a chance to get into the state tournament draw with a playdown game against Bethel.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieatheday